Content is the lifeblood of any digital platform, as crucial as the users who interact with it. Neglecting it can lead to dire consequences. Let's delve into the importance of content and why it deserves your undivided attention.
How an Object-Oriented Approach Helps You Better Understand Your Content and Tailor It to Your Users’ Needs
UX Designers are the primary advocate for the user, so understanding their needs and goals is fundamental to their work.
- Content is also of equal importance, as it is the material our applications are made of, and without a thorough understanding of its structure and properties, we can’t tailor the content to our users’ needs
- For example, in designing websites and applications, understanding the content is key because it defines the type (text, image, video, or audio) and determines its superficial hierarch
- The UI works at the intersection between the content’s abilities and users needs
Select the correct pattern
The chosen pattern should fit the user and content requirements
Problem with standardization
We don’t spend much time with the content. At best, this makes the design interchangeable. At worst, this creates a broken experience.
- It is impossible to select the correct pattern without a good understanding of the content and its context.
- Worst, we miss the chance to make our content stand out.
The content study
Look at each content element’s attributes
- Origin: Where is the content coming from
- Appearance: What are the sizes and default aspect ratios of an image or video?
- Relationships: How do those elements relate to each other? Do they have a one-to-one relationship or one too many? Are there dependencies between one element and another?
- Hierarchy: Are all related elements equal or do some have a parent-child relationship?
- Versions & state: Is the content changing over time?
Content is our material
The Bauhaus believed that designers should use materials in the most honest way possible
- To design a metal frame chair, you need to know how metal works
- Understand how thick it should be to carry the required weight
- Experiment with how to finish it to achieve the desired look and feel
- Similarly, digital products need to understand how our content behaves and how flexible it is
The object instantiations
Identify and detail the required instances
The next time you design a new application, take your time and immerse yourself in the content. Consider using an OOUX approach to structure your content.
Inspect the individual content elements. Identify the required instances and choose the pattern based on the content abilities and the users’ needs.
A content-first approach
ORCA (Objects, Relationships, Call-to-Action, Attributes) offers a step-by-step process to capture these entities
- Spending time studying your content will help you select more appropriate UI patterns
- This will lead to more relatable conceptual models, better usability, and a better user experience
The content inventory
To avoid surprises further down the road, you need to know all content elements and understand how they relate
- Start by identifying the primary content objects of your application
- Then map the nested objects
- Finally, list all the actions (CTA – call to actions) the users will need to work with the object
